As I’ve written before (here and here) I think there is tremendous potential for Health and Wellbeing Boards (HWBs) to make a huge difference through their Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategies (JHWSs). But it’s deceptively complex.
So I drew a diagram (attached) that sets out the key elements a strategy could focus on – those things that could make most long term difference to efficiency, quality and equality. Those elements (which can also be found in the Five Year Forward View and other places) are:
• services (making health and care services better, integrating, restructuring, Better Care Fund, new models of care etc.) • prevention (individual risk factors and the wider determinants of health) • innovation and technology (new ways of doing things, exploiting ICT and other technology) • co-production (self-care, peer support, the role of carers, the public as equal partners in the wider health and wellbeing system)
It’s not the only way of looking at things, but I find it a useful one. It’s imperfect and also only a first step (not that many places are still at that first step, but we all need to keep going round the Escherian staircase).
Some of the other things that need to be done are:
Again, it’s not as if these things aren’t being done. But are they being done well enough anywhere to make a substantial difference?
Isn’t this something where there’s great scope to learn from each other and develop approaches together? I’ve started a forum thread here, so why not contribute any experiences or ideas there?
[A slightly longer version of this blog appears on my website here]